Anemoi: assessing chemical emissions from offshore windfarms

Offshore wind is expected to play a huge role in the European Union’s (EU’s) energy transition. Member states have agreed ambitious goals for offshore renewable energy, with intermediate goals for 2030 and 2040 for each of the EU’s five sea basins. This means the number of offshore wind turbines in European waters will increase exponentially, all of which need to be protected with coatings and corrosion protection systems such as anodes, which produce chemical emissions. Once in operation, turbines can also shed particulate matter into the ocean.  
 
In other industries, such as shipping, the use of protective coatings has been contentious. This does not imply coatings applied in offshore windfarms will have similar effects, only that it is important to understand potential effects.

The offshore wind industry has already taken steps to reduce some of its potential effects on the environment, for instance during construction and operation, and introduced measures to reduce the impact of underwater noise on marine mammals. Developers have also begun to design and implement projects that have a net positive impact on the environment, but for the time being, relatively little is known about the potential risk of chemical emissions from offshore windfarms. It is expected to be small, but as Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in Belgium’s research scientist Bavo De Witte tells OWJ, given how quickly the number of wind turbines and other structures is expected to grow, it is important to assess emissions from offshore wind and their potential impact on ecosystems and aquaculture, to avoid potential contamination of the marine environment, particularly from coatings and corrosion protection systems.

Dr De Witte is co-ordinator of the Anemoi project, which is funded by the EU through the Interreg programme, which aims to identify potential chemical emissions from offshore windfarms, assess their effect on ecosystems and aquaculture and propose solutions to reduce them, if necessary. 

As Dr De Witte explains, the project has attracted interest and support from industry, policymakers and the public sector. “We expect there will be emissions from offshore windfarms, but their extent is not well understood and needs to be compared to emissions from other sources, such as shipping and the offshore oil and gas industry. It is doubtful if the emissions from windfarms will exert major environmental effects,” he tells OWJ, “but at the moment, there is too little data to fully assess risks to the marine environment.” 

Dr De Witte says there is a need to better characterise the potential risk from chemical emissions and particulates from offshore windfarms using a smart, risk-based monitoring system. However, at this point, more data is needed to assess the full extent of each effect to the marine ecosystem.

Over the lifetime of a windfarm, Dr De Witte explains, there will be continuous emissions – from chemicals in paints and coatings, for instance – and ‘discontinuous’ emissions from occasional or one-off events. Anemoi will focus primarily on continuous emissions, and on organic and inorganic emissions and particulates, such as material shed from wind turbine blades when they are eroded.